mounting coyote

I'am about to mount my first coyote and was wondering if you have to turn the ears or can you leave them to dry and do you use clay for the ear butts.Also can you salt a sguirrel for a day before you use dry preserve will it set the hair better. the last one I did lost some hair around the ears and eyes.Thanks nick

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dog ears

Yes the ears should be turned and proper earliners should be used. The cartiladge needs to be removed also. So folks get away with leaving them in and using some type of sculp-all etc. But this produces fat ears and very unlife like.

Your best bet is to get a video, or a book on mounting. This will wid you in your questions and will help you in the proper mounting procedures.

Don't salt the squirrel

Nick, The squirrels need to be handled pretty quickly and spoilage can be a problem for sure. Starting with a very fresh one in good condition skin it trying not to let the heat from your fingers warm the skin up in any spots.Flesh as necessary and dry preserve it and mount immediatly. In this way you minnimize the risk of hair slippage. Inject the toes and ears (if that's how you wish to handle them)then brush lightly with soft tooth brush and allow to dry fully before final grooming- hair can come out if you brush it much as it dries.Good luck-Aaron Honeycutt

turn the ears

you must definetely turn the ears and remove all the meat around the earbutts. I do not us earliners however, even for my competition mounts. I bondo all my ears and have outstanding results doing it. So if you don't feel like removing the cartiladge try the bondo method. And another thind. Stay away from dry preservative, tan your hides properly. I tan all my hides even the squirrels.

not all of us have had bad luck withdry pres.

I turn the ears and use the bondo method too but I have
had great success with DanChase ez-mount dry tan preservative
and I'll tell you what sold me on it! By no means do I reccomend
treating any skin this harshly but, I have a Muledeer I mounted
that was killed skinned and dry pres. applied it was not fleshed
a year later it was thawed completely still not fleshed left un-thawed for 2 days and re-frozen another year went by and I
thawed it out a few more times still not fleshing it .I forgot about it for a year and a half and found it when cleaning out the freezer
I thawed it out and forgot it on my back porch in 70+ degree weather
when I returned from my family emergency, It had been three days
I thought it was ruined but it had no offensive odor so I decided to
try and mount it just to see how it would turn out,much to my surprise I had absolutely no slippage and except for the wavy ears
(my fault,I didnt spend the time to do the ears as I should have)
mostly because I thought it was going to fall apart. It has been mounted for two years now and still looks good! If you dont beleive me e-mail me & I'll send a pic
Im sold
Kelley

Yes,I am aware of Chases legal major no-no

I am fully aware of the [a supply company] co and their legal mess
He(mr.chase) should have Known better than to copy someone elses
work. I don't purchase any forms from them anymore but I havent found anything to beat their dry tan pres. Yet!